Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

At the very tip of the Baja California Peninsula in Mexico, is the small town of Cabo San Lucas. This is basically a holiday resort for California, being easily accessible by air, or by a recently built road. It is the beach town of choice for the schoolies when they are on their end of school blow out. Luckily we managed to avoid that. We discover lots of friendly people, harbourside restaurants and endless condominiums stretching along the beaches and up the hill sides.

Overlooking the prosperous holiday resort harbour at Cabo San Lucas

Harbor side buildings reflect the dominant pseudo-Mexican style that predominates

The rear of the beachside condominiums … just for the wealthy!

If you build your house on a rock, why of course, you need a lift!

Lucky to catch this vulture in flight.

Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

The next day, we find ourselves on the mainland of Mexico at the port of the substantial city of Vallarta. Near the port there are large shopping centres including a Walmart just in case you have forgotten any essentials!.The main tourist attraction here is a pedestrian only “Sculpture Walk” along the shoreline. Boasting some pretty amazing sculptures, it lies just a short taxi ride away from the port along the busy highway to the cobbled roads of the old town.

The first in a long line of Sculptures.

Extensive cobbles of the old town

Vallarta is a favourite tourist destination for Mexicans.

We decide to take a rest and watch the passers by. See how much weight we’ve lost 🙂

Senor Frog seems popular here.

Performers spin around the pole to the delight of the onlookers

More food please …

Anyone for Milk!

Photos, photos and more photos … we all snap away.

The locals call this the “Training Ladder”. They are preparing for “Trumps Wall”

Mmmm … sugar and tabacco … just the thing!

Walking back towards the port we go though a somewhat more worn part of town.

Huatulco, Mexico

Another day, another port in Mexico, this time the small port of Huatulco. It is cloudy and rains now and then as we survey the tourist shops and restaurants. We try to find the nearby town without success and then discover we had taken the wrong road. This is the first place we notice a definite police/military presence complete with automatic weapons.

Keeping watch …

Dive boats await custom

This sign has left out the “America” of Holland-America. Sign of times to come?

This was the most amazing piece of reverse parking into a narrow bay I have seen in a while!

Jacqui doing as Jacqui does 🙂

A cruise ship along side a pirate ship … tarred with the same brush you think?

They do love their pink!

Puerto Chiapas and Tapachula, Mexico

Just north of the Guatemalan border is the small harbour of Puerto Chiapas. There is nothing in the port to speak of, so we have paid our $10 each for the shuttle bus and take the 40 minute drive to the nearby town of Tapachula, a “real” Mexican town at last. It is a large bustling town which has little to do with tourism and so is a chance to see Mexican life in action.

Judging by the long lines of shoe-shine stalls in the main square (this is a small sample), Mexican men must get their shoes really dirty.

The beautiful ceiling of church in the main square

They don’t seem to think much of Mr Trump down here.

The bustle of the local market

They play music to their vegetables here … keeps them fresh apparently!

Getting old can be pretty difficult.

I think they must have cornered the market of pink paint.

The stained glass window in the municipal building. The missing panes of glass are luckily not obvious.

No brush cutters here … a machete is all you need to keeps the weeds away.

We bid farewell to the glorious tropical skies of Mexico

And so we leave Mexico as we sail south towards the equator. Next is Guatemala with it’s volcanoes and the UNESCO heritage listed city of Antigua.

Enjoy!
Alan